A Finance Blog

A Year in Review | 2018 (& 2019 Goals)

Below is a financial reflection of 2018. I would like to note that some of the numbers may be differ from the actual monthly reports due to corrections that came later. I’m pretty pleased with how 2018 went. My net worth more than doubled:

Liquid Assets

Start

End

$ Change

Cash & Savings

$450

$1,575

+$1,125

Emergency Fund

$3,405

$5,700

+$2,295

Savings Goals

$525

$775

+$250

Brokerage

$697

$1,200

+$503

Illiquid Assets

Start

End

$ Change

Savings Bonds

$2,135

$1,375

($760)

Home Equity

$11,850

$27.825

+$15,975

401K

$26,235

$39,525

+$13,290

Roth IRA

$20,224

$23,325

+$3,101

Liabilities

Start

End

$ Change

Credit Card

($1,792)

($0)

+$1,792

Loans

($18,751)

($4,175)

($14,576)

$44,978

$97,125

+$52,147

% Change

+115.9%

And I met all my financial goals:

Fund/Goal

Initial Goal

Actual

Percent

Retirement

15% of Income

Exceeded

–

Roth IRA

$5,500

$5,500

100%

Emergency Fund

$1,000

$1,500

150%

Net Worth Increase

$20,000

$53,592

268%

I spent the following (not including debt payments):

Category

Total

Monthly Avg

Bills & Utilities

$1,536

$128

Medical

$3,961

$330

Food

$2,718

$227

Everything Else

$7,858

$655

Note: During a typical month my goal was to spend $300/month in the “Everything Else” category. But I often times dipped into my sinking funds to pay for gifts, vacations, gadgets, and other overages. I will try to keep better track of my sinking funds next year to ensure I’m not overspending.

My goals for 2019 are:

Fund/Goal

Goal

401K Contributions

$19,000

Roth IRA Contributions

$6,000

HSA Contributions

$3,500

Net Worth Total

$100,000

Emergency Fund Contribution

$400

Savings Goal

$2,500

Collectively the goals are a bit of a stretch. Especially since I want to avoid touching my HSA (though that is not one of the goals as of yet). My guess is that I’ll have issues with the savings goal but we’ll see.